The struggle has been REAL for those of us who've been (impatiently) waiting for George R.R. Martin to hurry up and give us the next "Song Of Ice And Fire" installment already. We've even gone so far as to faux offer the job up to other authors, as our fingers twiddled with anticipation for the real thing.

But alas, there's a nugget of good news: "Winds of Winter" is coming. Finally.

Because Martin has reportedly decided against penning an episode for "Game Of Thrones" Season 6 -- which, not to downplay the decision, is also what happened with Season 5, sigh -- with the intention of finishing his work on "Winter" once and for all. (Oh, and he'll also be ditching the Comic-Con scene this July, so don't go to any great lengths with your Khaleesi cosplaying on account of impressing him. 'Cos he'll be at home typing up the novel -- or so he says.)

The author-screenwriter told Entertainment Weekly, "Maybe I'm being overly optimistic about how quickly I can finish. But I canceled two convention appearances, I'm turning down a lot more interviews—anything I can do to clear my decks and get this done."

"GET THIS DONE." Now, that's more like it. Now we'll just have to troll his blog every day to find out the if-and-when release date for this thing. Stay tuned.